The present invention relates generally to handheld fastener dispensing devices and more specifically to a novel kit that is particularly well-suited for use in attaching a button to an article of clothing.
Traditionally, detached buttons are sewn back onto articles of clothing using a needle and thread. However, the act of sewing a button onto an article using a needle and thread has been found to be a rather time-consuming and highly dexterous process. As a result, consumers that require the re-attachment of a button to an article often either employ a professional seamstress for the task, typically at a substantial cost, or permanently discard the article.
In response to the shortcomings associated with the traditional sewing process, button attachment kits have recently been developed that greatly simplify the manner in which detached buttons can be re-attached to articles of clothing, each button fastening kit typically comprising, inter alia, one or more clips of plastic fasteners, a handheld fastener dispensing tool and a small sampling of individual buttons. As will be described further in detail below, the handheld tool is designed to separate a fastener from the fastener clip and, in turn, dispense the fastener through the detached button and the intended garment to securely re-attach the separated objects. One well known button attachment kit is manufactured and sold by Avery Dennison Corporation of Pasadena, Calif. under its BUTTONEER® line of fastening systems.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,974, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, there is shown a button attachment kit which comprises a fastener attaching tool and a complementary fastener clip, the fastener clip including a pair of runner bars and one or more U-shaped fasteners having transverse bars at opposite ends, each transverse bar being connected to a corresponding runner bar by a severable connector post. The fastener attaching tool includes a pair of needles, each needle having longitudinal slotted bore adapted to receive one of the transverse bars and a knife edge formed on one side which is adapted to sever a connector post from its associated transverse bar as the transverse bar is pushed through the needle. The body of the tool includes a transverse feed slot through which the fastener clip is manually inserted, the feed slot being situated directly behind the pair of needles. The tool also includes an ejector mechanism that is slidably mounted back and forth within the tool body and is rearwardly biased by a spring. The ejector mechanism is manually operable from the rear of the body and includes a pair of ejector rods that are disposed to slide back and forth through the bore of corresponding needles and, in turn, push the transverse bars of the lowermost fastener in the loaded fastener clip out through the open sharpened tip of the needles. Other patents of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,162 to Deschenes et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,286 to Deschenes et al., both disclosures being incorporated herein by reference.
In use, fastener dispensing tools of the type described in the '974 patent are typically handled and operated like a syringe. Specifically, the index and middle fingers of the user are disposed either through openings in the front of the tool body or, in the alternative, against the front surface of the tool body on opposite sides of the pair of needles. In addition, the thumb of the user is disposed against the exposed rear surface of the ejector block for the ejector mechanism. Handled in this manner, the tool is manually driven by the user such that the sharpened tip of each needle penetrates through an opening in the detached button and through the intended garment. At this time, fastener actuation is achieved by manually pushing the ejector block forward using the thumb of the user.
Fastener dispensing tools of the type described in the '974 patent have been found to suffer from a few notable shortcomings.
As a first shortcoming, fastener dispensing tools of the type described in the '974 patent require a significant level of manual dexterity to operate. In particular, it has been found that certain users (e.g., arthritis patients) lack the dexterity required to either (i) handle the tool similarly to a syringe, (ii) drive the sharpened needles through the pair of objects to be coupled and/or (iii) actuate the device using his/her thumb.
As a second shortcoming, dual needle fastener dispensing tools of the type described in the '974 patent require a greater amount of hand strength than their single needle counterparts. Specifically, because a dual needle tool requires both the penetration of two needles through a layer of fabric as well as the ejection of a pair of transverse bars through its needles, it is to be understood that the force associated with each of the aforementioned steps is considerably greater than the force required to dispense a fastener from a single needle tool.
As a third shortcoming, dual needle fastener dispensing tools of the type described in the '974 patent are often more difficult to load than their single needle counterparts. Specifically, in addition to the fact that the fastener clip is somewhat difficult to handle, some users, on occasion, fail to adequately advance each runner bar of the clip in its proper position within the tool prior to actuation which, in turn, can lead to fastener jamming within the tool.